Emily, one of our lab scientists, ran across a very interesting article today published by the BBC entitled “Cancer genetic blueprint revealed”. In the article a team from The Washington University identified 10 gene mutations which appeared key to the development of the woman’s Acute Myeloid Leukaemia (also known as “AML”, “Acute Myelogenous Leukemia”, or Acute Myeloid Leukemia”), fast-growing cancer of the blood and bone marrow.
We find this type of research fascinating and pretty exciting for a number of reasons.
1. We’re collaborating on several leukemia-related cancer genetics projects – particularly in Chronic Myeloid Leukemia (“CML”) – with researchers from both industry and academia. Thorough our collaborations with the HudsonAlpha Institute for Biotechnology (“HudsonAlpha” or “HAIB”), we look forward to helping them contribute to the understanding of the genetic diversity of cancer. To read more about HudsonAlpha, visit the Myers lab (lead by P.I. Rick Myers, Ph.D.) and The Han lab (lead by P.I. Jian Han, M.D., Ph.D.).
2. Through our research in leukemia (AML, CML, and CLL primarily) and affiliation with HudsonAlpha, we’ve also had the opportunity to get to know geneticist Dr. Francis Collins, a former director of the US National Human Genome Research Institute. Dr. Collins continues to lead the genetics field with his work and it is great to see his interest in this article.
3. We’re continuing to see the strong push in all areas of discovery science toward the use of primary cells versus cell lines. As it continues to be proven, primary cells are advantageous because primary cells (peripheral blood mononuclear cells and bone marrow mononuclear cells) better represent disease diversity in discovery research in AML, CML, CLL, PV, and other conditions.
We hope to see more articles, more research, and more discoveries in AML (and other leukemias) in the near future.
